Crab Salad Panini

Zesty crab salad sandwich in sourdough bread, grilled on a panini press.

Crab Salad Panini
Elise Bauer

Are you ready for game day?

I developed this Crab Salad panini to celebrate the epic match-up between Baltimore and San Francisco in the 47th Superbowl.

What better way to do that than with a crab salad panini! Both Baltimore and San Francisco are known for their local crab. In Baltimore it's blue crab, in San Francisco, Dungeness. The crab salad itself is made with fresh, sweet lump crab meat, parsley, green onion, lemon, mayo, and Tabasco.

The crab salad is spread between two pieces of sliced sourdough bread (a nod to SF), painted with butter, and then put in a panini press, where the two sides are jammed together, and sizzled. Just like the upcoming game.

Crab Salad Panini
Elise Bauer

If you don't have a panini press, you can easily make the sandwich as if you would make a grilled cheese sandwich. Just press down with a metal spatula as you sear each side.

If you want to make the sandwich more Californian, put a few avocado slices in the sandwich.

If you want to make it more reminiscent of Baltimore, swap out the Tabasco for plenty of Old Bay.

It's delicious either way!

Crab Salad Panini

Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 12 mins
Total Time 22 mins
Servings 4 sandwiches

We've made this with fresh crab and with canned crab, and fresh crab is infinitely better.

The instructions call for using a panini grill, but you can easily make this as if you make any grilled sandwich on a cast iron pan or griddle surface. Just press down on the sandwich with a metal spatula and flip it once one side is browned.

You can dress up the sandwich a bit with a few slices of avocado in each sandwich.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup chopped green onion
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 4 teaspoons lemon zest
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
  • 14 to 16 oz fresh lump crab meat
  • 8 slices sourdough bread
  • 4 Tbsp butter, room temperature

Method

  1. Place parsley, green onion, mayonnaise, lemon zest, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, and Tabasco sauce in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Gently fold in the crabmeat, taking care not to break up the clumps of crabmeat.

  2. Heat your panini grill. Spread some butter on two slices of bread to flavor the outside of the sandwich. Turn over one slice of bread and top it a quarter of the crab mixture. Close the sandwich with the other slice of bread, buttered side up.

  3. Grill two panini at a time, with the lid closed, until the the bread is toasted, 4 to 5 minutes.